“Oh, yes, I dare say there are lovelier places in Australia,” he replied. “You see there’s a pretty fair amount of room in Australia for places lovely and the opposite. But there’s no place out there that’s just the same as this place here on such an evening as this. I used to wonder long ago if I should ever see Ranelagh under such conditions as these--distinguished men--there are some distinguished men here--and beautiful women--music and moonlight and the scent of roses, and above all, the consciousness that this is Home--Home--in Australia we think a good deal about this England of ours. People in England have great pride in thinking of Australia as their own, but their pride is nothing compared to that of the Australians in thinking of England as their Home.” “Of course we are all one,” said Amber. “But your father could scarcely have told you about Ranelagh: it did not exist in its present form in his day--that is to say--oh, you see that I am assuming that he was in Australia for a good many years.” “I heard about Ranelagh first from a stock rider on one of my father’s farms. He was one of the best chaps in the world. He showed me a prize or two that he had won here in the old days,--his old days could not have been more than five or six years ago. I had also a groom who used to play polo here.” “And people talk about the days of romance being past!” said Amber. “I dare say you could furnish our school--I wonder if Guy mentioned it to you-----” “Oh, yes; he told me all about it.” “You could furnish the romance class with some capital plots to work out, could you not?” “I dare say I could if I knew all the circumstances that led up to the fragments that came under my notice. But I could not ask the stock rider or the groom how they came to sell their horses and settle down to live on thirty shillings a week in a colony. I could not even ask either of them what was his real name.” “I suppose that almost every romance begins by a change of name?” He was silent for some moments. Then he threw away the end of the cigar which he had been smoking and drank the few drops of liqueur which remained in his glass. He drew his chair an inch or two closer to hers saying in a low tone: “It was only a short time before I left the colony that I had brought under my notice the elements of a curious romance. Would you care to hear it?” “I should like very much. If it is unfinished it might make a good exercise for Mr. Richmond to set for one of his classes at the school--‘given the romance up to a certain point, required the legitimate and artistic ending--that would be the problem.”